The Mysterious Message
by Pockethobbit
Summary: Remus Lupin was used to strange stuff. It was entirely weird. He stared down at the piece of parchment, wondering if the wolf in him had finally succeeded to make him mad. Remus gets a mysterious note on a piece of parchment which he can't stop to think about. It doesn't help that his best friend, Sirius, seems to know who has written it.


_AN: Hey there! Have some fluffy Wolfstar-oneshot. I wrote this as an apology for my dear friend Hufflejenny, to make up for spoiling her I hope you like it, it's my first attempt at Wolfstar, but I'm totally into this two adorable idiots. This is un-betad, so if you find any mistakes, feel free to message me!_  
_~ Pockethobbit****_

**The Mysterious Message **

Remus John Lupin was used to strange stuff. His mother was a muggle, so he had been raised both magically and scientific. In their old flat, where they used to live until he was seven years old, you could find a funny compilation of enchanted artefacts and muggle-things, lying side by side and uniting the two so very different worlds.  
When Greyback had bitten him and thus cursed him, the changes in his body had been strange. Terrifying, horrible, scary and …strange. After that terrible incident, the Lupins had moved into the country so as nobody would be able to hear Remus on full moon nights. They bought a farm with the heritage of Remus' dead grandmother. The farm had been strange too, at first, but in an exciting way of strange. There were many animals which Remus really liked, even if they all seemed to be scared of him, there was the working on the field, where he helped his dad, because he was strangely strong (which of course was caused by the lycanthropy).  
A few years later, at his eleventh birthday, something else happened, equally strange. But in a twisted happy sort of strange. Remus Lupin, the little werewolf, had received a letter from Hogwarts. He had been very excited, since his dad had hesitantly explained to him that he might not be able to go some months ago, and now he could.  
Saying goodbye to his parents at platform 9 ¾ had been strange too, in a sad way. At the time he hadn't fully been able to realize that he wouldn't see his parents for a long time. It was a funny feeling, the excitement over being able to go to _Hogwarts_ and the churning in his stomach of leaving his parents behind.  
The three boys he met on the Hogwarts Express had been strange. Funny, exciting and a little bit frightening in their passion for mischief. It had been the first time in his life he had actually thought about making friends since_ The Night_. He had been completely freaked out with fear of them discovering his secret, but strangely, they stayed with him when they finally did in their third year.  
The most amazing and strangest thing which had happened to him until now had been at the beginning of their sixth year when Sirius, James and Peter had turned right in front of his eyes, in the middle of their dormitory, into a giant dog, a stag and a rat. He had nearly cried with joy over never having to be alone again in the Shrieking Shack and of course he had shouted at them for half an hour about their stupidity to risk their lives for something like this. And within the same few weeks, these strange thoughts about one of his friends had started. Remus hadn't been sure at first what it was until he saw some Ravenclaw with shoulder-long gold-brownish hair snogging Sirius and he had felt the urge to rip her head off in the most painful way. After that, he did everything to hide his not-just-friendly feelings for one of his best friends.

All in all you could say Remus Lupin had been in every possible state of strangeness. But this was completely strange. It was strange-strange. It was entirely weird. He stared down at the piece of parchment, wondering if the wolf in him had finally succeeded to make him mad. A few minutes ago, he had come down into the library to hide from Sirius, who had gone on and on about Quidditch in their dormitory. Since James wasn't really better and Peter supported everything the other two did, he had been alone in his wish for a bit quiet to read. So he had snatched the book he was reading at the moment (_The Hobbit_, some muggle-book his mother had send him) and come down here to sit in his favourite corner and loose himself in another world. But the second he had entered the library Madame Pince had all but assaulted him and nearly thrown a book at his head. If he didn't have some extremely heightened reflexes a cause to his lycanthropy, he would have let it drop. The librarian then spun around and vanished behind some shelves, grumbling: 'as if I was some sort of owl', angrily to herself. He had stood in the entrance thunder struck and hadn't been able to move for a full thirty seconds. It was entirely abnormal for the woman to be so careless with one of her leather-bound preciouses. Slowly he had made his way to his favourite spot in the corner of the large hall and inspected the book more closely. It was a book he had read a few days ago at this exact place, but that wasn't the strange thing. There was a little piece of parchment somewhere in the middle of the book. And there was written onto it:  
_You leave your bookmark between the pages in front of the one you last read so you don't have to remove it when you read on._  
The creepy thing was: he actually did do that. It was just more practical this way, he could open the book on the page after the bookmark and read on, without the thing bothering his sight. And when he finished reading, he put it there again, for the next time to find his page. But, by Merlin, who noticed such a thing?! Quickly he glanced around to check if he was watched. There was nobody in sight. Nobody who could have observed him reading here, just as usual. He looked down again to take a closer look at the scripture. The handwriting was foreign, tough it slightly resembled Professor McGonagall's. He scowled at the dark ink as if it was insulting him. What was this for a sort of prank? Who was this mysterious stalker of his?  
After a while of staring down at the message which still didn't enlighten him who had written it, he got up and made his way through the aisles of the library. If the parchment wasn't going to reveal his writer by itself, he would force it to. He stopped in the section for _uncovering spells_. Running his fingers over the book spines, he skimmed the titles for the book his friends and him had used all those years ago to create the Maurauders' Map. He could barely remember a spell about revealing the creator of something which they had altered with a mirror spell to show the intruder something about himself and not about them. He smiled softly when he pictured his friends as he had explained it to them.

_'That's absolutely brilliant mate!', James exclaimed. Peter nodded enthusiastically next to him, his blond, strawy hair bouncing up and down in a very comical way. Sirius looked at him with an awestruck face and a proud glitter in his eyes. He leaned forward to ruffle through his hair. 'I always knew you're one of this genius-minds, Moony!', he said, grinning broadly at him.  
'Yeah, well, I thought it would be quite useful. I mean, we don't want to get caught if somebody ever gets that map, huh?', he said sheepishly but beamed at them. The warm, fluttery feeling which evaporated in his chest made his cheeks tingle and he could feel heat rise up his neck. 'Hey, Moony, can we make something so that it doesn't just mirror the finder but insult them too?', Peter asked eagerly. He grinned when his best friends cheered agreeably.  
_  
His fingers came to a halt on the spine of a big heavy book which was bound in dark green leather. He pulled it down from its' shelve and put it on a little table which stood nearby. _Revealing the sense between the lines by Agatha Croftage_ was imprinted with glaring orange letters onto the front. When he carefully opened the book cover he promptly had to sneeze. Dust was dancing through the air around him. It seemed as if nobody had even done so much as touch this book since he had pulled it out in third year. He grinned. It was a nice thought in some way, the book standing here for those years, waiting for the one person who actually cared enough to open it. He shook his head. If Sirius or James ever heard him say something like that, they would proclaim him mad. Well, James would. Sirius would probably raise his hands to his mouth in mock horror, widening his eyes theatrically and shout _'Oh my precious Merlin, may you rest well in peace, our dear friend Messrs. Moony finally read so much that he got his brain smashed up into incoherent and illogical letters and now thinks he is a book! We will never forget you, dear friend and pray every night for your recovery!'  
_Remus giggled. And then quickly looked around to see if somebody had heard him. He _would_ actually look mad if somebody watched him standing in the library all alone and giggling. When he was sure nobody had seen him, he quickly scanned the contents of the book until he found the right page. As soon as he had checked the spell and memorised it, he put the book back and unconsciously patted it lightly on its' spine as if to say good bye. He returned to his favourite seat and pointed his wand at the piece of parchment. He muttered softly 'Enuntio Scriptor' and watched as the letters blurred and formed themselves into new words. In the same somewhat girly handwriting stood now something else. But, discarding his hopes, it wasn't a name.  
_To reveal some things some must reveal some things for them self before.  
_Remus grumbled annoyed. Whoever had written this message had done their homework. Rolling his eyes he gave up. He would think about it at another day. He wasn't in the mood to solve riddles anymore. Shortly he pondered telling his friends about it, but then he decided against it. They would only mock him about it. He had to solve this on his own. But not today.  
Grabbing _The Hobbit_ and exchanging his bookmark with the little piece of parchment he left the library and went up to their Gryffindor common room.

Several weeks passed and Remus hadn't come any further with The Mysterious Message how he had come to call it. He sat on his bed in their dorm and stared at it, the little piece of parchment clasped between the pages of a muggle-book called _Alice in Wonderland_. He had to admit, storing it right under the sentence _We're all mad in here_ was a bit ironic, but he hadn't been able to resist.  
'Moony? Are you alright?', a familiar voice coming from right next to him asked. He jumped. Spinning around he stared at Sirius with wide eyes for a second, before starting to scowl.  
'Don't do that. You scared the hell out of me.' His friend only raised an eyebrow, a small frown on his forehead.  
'Normally, you can smell us coming from 20 metres afar, even if you're absorbed in a book', he stated, giving the book in his hands a short glare. Probably because it was stealing Remus' attention from him. The werewolf only glowered at him. This stupid little piece of parchment completely cost him his senses. How had ne not noticed Sirius coming? The guy always used a ton of aftershave to cover the slightly doggish smell which always surrounded him, even though Remus doubted anybody but him and Sirius himself, who had slightly heightened senses due to their part-time-canine-body, would be able to smell it. He closed the book harshly and tossed it onto his pillow. This had to stop. Then he turned around to look at his friend who was still staring at him with raised eyebrows.  
'What?', the werewolf snapped, crossing his arms.  
'Nothing. What were you looking at anyway? You haven't been turning a page for the last twenty minutes. Normally you read so fast, there's an actual wind coming from your turning pages.' Remus could feel a blush rise on his cheeks.  
'Was lost in thought', he mumbled, looking down at his hands. But before he could react, Sirius snatched the book from the bed and opened it. He pulled out the little piece of parchment and read it, a grin slowly spreading over his cheeks.  
'Moony, you've received a love letter! Why didn't you tell us?'  
The blush on his cheeks only darkened further as he snatched the note away from Sirius.  
'That's hardly a love letter. It's just some mysterious message somebody left me and I haven't figured out yet who and why.'  
Sirius' grin faltered slightly. 'Well, the why is pretty obvious, isn't it?', he asked, his face hunched with confusion. The lycanthrope stared at him blankly.  
'Uhm…some kind of prank?'  
Having to live up his reputation of being the biggest drama queen of Hogwarts, Sirius sighed theatrically, let himself fall onto Remus' bed and closed his eyes with an expression of extreme tiredness on his face.  
'Oh Moony, how can you be so obtuse to overlook the clear signs of attracting this someone feels to you? I mean honestly, who'd notice something like _that_.'  
Remus shoulders hunched. Allowedly, he had thought about that too. At first. But he was a werewolf. Even if this person didn't knew about it, they would be scared or disgusted if they ever found out. So he had suppressed any thought in that direction in order not to bring his hopes up. With one person in particular. It wouldn't help anything. Even if for a brief moment, the thought of _someone_ actually being in love with him had been a nice one. But he knew he shouldn't think things like that. Even if _he_ maybe wouldn't be disgusted, he just couldn't fathom it. _Someone_ wasn't known as a ladies man in Hogwarts for nothing.  
'I really don't think so, Sirius', he said silently, looking up at his friend. For a short moment it seemed as if a hurt expression crossed the Black-boys eyes, but when Remus looked again he just seemed to be annoyed.  
'Remus Myrtle Lupin, why can't you fucking accept that somebody is in love with you? Your low self-esteem will make you lonely sometime in the near future, you know.'  
Not the least bit impressed the werewolf shook his head. 'Pads, that's really nice of you to think but I honestly- wait. That somebody _is_ in love with me? Do you know who wrote that note?!'  
'No', Sirius said hastily. Too hastily.  
'Sirius!'  
'No, I really don't know who wrote this, sorry Moony', he babbled, getting up from the bed and slowly backing away from Remus as if he was a growling animal which wanted to attack him. Which actually wasn't that unlikely.  
'Sirius! Stop, tell me who!', Remus urged and got up too to hold his friend back, but before he could make a step into his direction, the door slammed shut behind the Animagus. The werewolf frowned at the door. 'That was odd', he said. Peter, who had been sitting on his bed trying to finish his transfiguration essay the whole time, nodded emphatically.

Sirius avoided him for the rest of the day. Remus had no idea where he had vanished to, but he certainly didn't find him, even with his heightened sense of smell. Giving up his search he slumped down under the tree by the lake, his copy of _Alice in Wonderland_ clasped in his hands. He stared at the cover, not opening it yet, thinking. Who the hell could have written this? Why did Sirius knew who had? And why did Sirius think to know that person was in love with him? It was all so confusing. Angrily he opened the book, took out the piece of parchment and crumpled it in his hands. He balled his fist around it. After a moment of scowling at nothing in particular, he opened his fist though, pulling out his wand and muttering a _reparo_ while pointing it at The Mysterious Message. He decided to ignore the note. If there actually was somebody who was interested in him, in what way ever (he didn't dare to believe Sirius), they would approach him again if nothing happened, would they?  
Putting it back into his book he proceeded to follow Alice through this confusing world of hers.

When he came back into their dorm just before curfew, Sirius was sitting on his bed. Remus frowned at him, putting his book on the nightstand and slumping down next to his dark haired friend. 'Where have you been?'  
'Just… catching some air', Sirius mumbled. If it hadn't been _Sirius_, Remus had been sure he was blushing.  
'Okay', he said, nodding and proceeding to look for his pyjamas.  
The Animagus gaped at him.  
'Okay?!' Remus shrugged, not deigning that with an answer.  
'No further asking? No prodding? No looking for information which you can store in this abnormally-good-at-memorizing brain of yours?', he asked, completely knocked off.  
'Nope. You wouldn't tell me anyway and really, it doesn't matter. If this person doesn't want me to know who they are, then I won't identify them. I don't care, this has stolen too much of my time anyhow in which I could have been catching up the stuff I missed last moon.'  
He slipped into the bathroom, not waiting for Sirius' answer and changed quickly. When he re-entered the dorm after some minutes, Sirius was still sitting on his bed, pouting. Remus decided to ignore him, snuggled beneath his Animagus-occupied blanket and looked up at him, a sigh escaping his mouth.  
'What's it now, Pads?', he asked tiredly.  
'Nothing', he got the sullen answer, 'just not what I expected.' Then he (finally, Remus thought) got down from his bed and skipped over to his own, closing the curtains behind him.

Remus woke to a scowling face watching him. He jumped as he got aware of James, only a few centimetres away from his face, and scrambled up to the head of his bed with a not-so-manly squeal.  
'WHAT THE HELL PRONGS?!'  
James grinned self-satisfied and stood up.  
'Nice of you to join the living people, Moony. I have a complaint to report.' Confused and with a still slightly blurry sight, the werewolf looked up.  
'…What?'  
The scowl on James' face reappeared.  
'You', he accused, pointing his finger to Remus' chest, 'did something. And now Sirius is sulking. If you don't repair him, I'm going to assign you as our new beater. I expect Sirius to show up at training this afternoon.'  
With that James (and a hurriedly following Peter) left the dorm. Turning slightly green at the thought of ever having to mount a broom again in his life, Remus let his eyes wander over to Sirius' bed. He had no doubt James would follow through with his threat if he didn't fix this, whatever this was. The bed curtains were still closed, which was extremely odd. Normally, Sirius could only contain himself lying around lazily until six o'clock at the most. A quick glance at his watch told him it was already nine. Warily what to find behind the red cloth, Remus approached his bed.  
'Sirius?', he asked hesitantly. There was no answer. He opened the curtains a little bit, only to be greeted with his friend's back.  
'Are you awake?', he asked softly. Sirius grumbled.  
'I'll take this as a yes.' He sat down beside him, pulling his legs up to his chest and slinging his arms around, head resting on his knees.  
'Sirius, listen, I have no idea what is up with you. I know it has something to do with The Mysterious Message, but I don't know why you're upset. Shouldn't _I_ be? I mean, it's _me_ who doesn't know who wrote it. As I seem to recall, _you_ know.'  
'…buyoushouhavfiguroubyno.' The answer was muffled by the pillow in which Sirius had hidden his face. The werewolf sighed.  
'Would it bother you much to turn around so that I actually understand what you're saying?', he asked, quirking an eyebrow up.  
When his friend turned around, Remus was startled to see that he had dark circles around his eyes. It seemed as if he hadn't slept all night.  
Sirius took a deep breath.  
'You should have figured out by now who it was, Rem. Really, I thought you were the intelligent one', he said, trying a smile but not able to fool the werewolf. Said boy was completely confused.  
'How on earth should I know who-'  
'Me.'  
'_What_?'  
'It was me.'  
'You…wait…what?'  
Sirius rolled his eyes. 'Do I really have to say it again?' He looked a bit sheepish.  
Remus on the other side was completely lost.  
'I…you…what…but…._why_?', he asked, finally able to vocalise the most important question spinning through his head. Sirius frowned.  
'Have you hit your head?'  
'What? Why?'  
'I think I told you already why I wrote that note.'  
Remus head was spinning. He looked at his best friend who was blushing furiously now. This was a prank. This had to be a prank. In no way could Sirius be… No. He couldn't. He wouldn't let himself bring his hopes up for a stupid prank.  
'You can't.'  
The Animagus looked hurt. 'I can't what?'  
'You can't be. Serious. No, you're Sirius I know, but that isn't… you aren't… how could you ever..?'  
Suddenly the stormy grey eyes of his friend went cold and he visibly paled. He pushed himself a bit back, putting a few inches between him and the werewolf. He didn't meet his eyes  
'Oh. Well, huh. That wasn't what I had hop- planned. But, uhh, okay, I'll just be downstairs then. Uhm…see you around, Remus', he stammered and before Remus could even do so much as open his mouth, the door slammed shut behind him.

Remus sat on Sirius bed, entirely befuddled. Something had completely gone wrong here. And he had no idea what. And now Sirius was angry- no worse, he was _upset_ because of him. What had he done wrong? What by Merlin was this all about? He sat there, not moving, for a long time, staring at the wall, thinking about what just had happened.  
After what felt like hours, he heard feet stamp up the stairs to their dorm loudly. Before he even could hear him, he smelled that it was James.  
'REMUS IDIOTICUS LUPIN. (Really, what was this thing his friends had with making up middle names for him?) WHAT BY MERLINS PANTS HAVE YOU-', the door banged open and Prongs stood there, staring at him with wide eyes. Suddenly looking worried, he asked: 'Are you crying?'  
Instinctively the werewolf touched his face and really, both of his cheeks were completely wet with tears. He hadn't even noticed it. Ashamed, he started rubbing his cheeks with the hem of his cloak, shaking his head and not meeting James' eyes.  
Not knowing what exactly to do, the Gryffindor chaser sat down besides Remus and looked at him with worry.  
'Did you two fight or something?', he asked calmly. The werewolf shook his head.  
'Then why the hell are both of you crying? I thought I had to murder you for letting him down, but now I don't really know whom of you I have to kill anymore.'  
Remus head shot up. 'Who are you talking about?', he asked, just to make sure.  
'Padfoot of course, whom else. He told me he would tell you, you know, all that stuff with him writing you that message to tell you that he's in love with you and this morning I thought he didn't have the guts, so I thought I'd set you up to ask him, and then he came down, all composed, and I asked what was wrong, because, honestly, if it had gone good he wouldn't have been all composed, would he? And he just shook his head, and he wasn't exactly crying, but I could see he was close, and he just shook his head and told me it's all okay, so I figured you would have rejected him so I came up here, but I thought you would only be awkward and not crying and-'  
'James, you're babbling', Remus interjected, his eyes wide. Sirius was in love with him? It wasn't a prank? But that would mean- He groaned. Of course. Of course Sirius would have interpreted his answer as a rejection then.  
_But that isn't… you aren't… how could you ever..?_  
Head spinning he jumped up and grabbed James' shoulders and shook him.  
'Where is he? Where is Sirius?!', he nearly screamed.  
'In the Astronomy Tower, I think, but wha-'  
Remus didn't let him finish. He sprinted out of the dorm, running down the stairs and pushing several first years out of his way while climbing through the portrait hole. The stairs up to the Astronomy Tower seemed to take no end and when he finally had reached the top, he was entirely breathless, werewolf-strength or not.

Sirius was sitting at the banister, head leaning against the large steel post, and looked down to the grounds of Hogwarts. The werewolf could see some tears glittering on his cheeks and instantly felt a stab in his chest. He was such an idiot.  
'Pads?', he nearly-whispered and watched as Sirius whipped his head around, staring at him with wide eyes. Then his shoulders slumped even further down and he turned back around.  
'Come to tell me we _could just be friends_, Rem? I know that already. I will get over it, just give me some time, yeah? Let me be for myself a bit.'  
Slowly he approached his friend and sat down next to him.  
'I don't want to', he told him softly. When Sirius head whipped around for the second time, his eyes were filled with fear. Remus had the urge to hit himself. Why did he always have to say something Sirius could misinterpret so easily?  
'I mean, I don't want to _just_ be friends', he added quickly, trying to emphasise the little but so very important word.  
Thankfully he could see the fear vanish in the grey orbs, being replaced by confusion. 'But you said-', Sirius began but Remus didn't let him finish.  
'I know what I said. You misunderstood me. I just… couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe that thing which I tried so hard not to hope for was true. I didn't want to reject you, quite the opposite. I'm sorry. I should have made it clearer, but I was just so confused and-'

Warm and soft lips met his and swallowed the rest of his explanations. For one moment he was too shocked to move, but he quickly recovered and kissed back feverishly. Something fluttered in his chest and his skin tingled where Sirius' hands carded through his hair and pulled him closer at his neck. He closed his eyes and sighed into Sirius mouth.  
After a little eternity, he softly pulled away, just a few millimetres, resting his forehead against the Animagus'.  
'But you have to explain me one thing', he whispered. His friend smiled.  
'Yeah?'  
'Who actually wrote that note for you? It wasn't your handwriting. And James' or Peter's neither.'  
A chuckle escaped Sirius' throat at that.  
'You won't believe me but I actually convinced Evans. It was a bit of work, but when I mentioned that it had to do with you, she finally listened to me. I tell you, she has a thing for you. If you don't pay attention, you'll get into trouble with James.'  
Remus pecked him, laughing quietly.  
'Or with you, huh?'  
Sirius smiled at him, his eyes sparkling. 'Or with me, yeah.'

~ finite incantatem ~


End file.
